Isuzu MU Solid Axle Swap - Day 473... *sigh*

[SupraLux]

Well, dragged it out of the shed to see how it will articulate, and struck the problem I knew I would have but was hoping would just go away if I ignored it... the crossmember.

Apologies for those with dialup - theres a few photos here...

In 2WD, this is as high as I could drive it on 31" all terrains without slipping on the grass - and I didn't want to damage the passenger side spring. It shows potential tho I think... I have my 36" Simexes now, but I'll wait till the shocks and crossmember are done before pulling it out again...



And from side on:


Then a closeup of the front wheel arch showing how much more droop I can get:


In the rear the springs are standard 50mm lifted Isuzu ones until I can get some falcons shoe-horned in there. These are on standard spring hangers, which I will swap out for extended ones to level the truck a bit:


Another angle:


And the problem: Damn crossmember in the way. Still, I have the modified one I made - now I just need to fit the darn thing...


Steve...

[DieselBoy]

Sweeeeeet!!

Good to see your back out there tinkering with it again man!!!!

[klompy]

I thought some-one said leaf springs were no good in one of the recent threads,they look pretty awesome there.Good work.

[SupraLux]

Coils make for a soft and supple ride, but theres nothing wrong with the travel from leaves if they are long and supple enough - balance is everything and I got pretty lucky with the springs I chose for this setup. Hilux rears - 50mm lifted with the third leaf and both overloads removed up front. As they begine to sag I will look at replacing the third leaf - these 3.1TD's are pretty heavy...

The rears are just 50mm lifted Isuzu ones, which I will pull and replace later... probably with Falcons or something similar. They seem to work well in unison with the fronts and the truck stays well balanced when driving up the ramp.

Having said all that, time will tell how good they work offroad - its one thing to ramp a vehicle, its totally something else to throw it at some nasty terrain...

Steve

[MATT4U]

could you do this to fix your movement probs

[SupraLux]

Interesting idea - looks a bit of a bush-fab setup but I can see how it would work. Poor mans revolver shackles...

The problem is I don't want to lower the rear of the spring down any more as it will adversly affect the steering geometry (which should be bad enough as it is ) I could just block it down but its not the right way to fix it.

If you look back through the Isuzu MU SAS threads you will see I've already made the crossmember - I just need to fit it. When I get time and all my other work out of the way

Steve

[MATT4U]

I just found it on a site in the states, those pics are off a rockcrawler hilux.

[MATT4U]

another thought, is there any reason to have them at the back, could you have the hangers at the front, don't landcruisers have them at the front??

[Heath]

So do leaf zuks.

[SupraLux]

Approach angle and avoiding oversteer in something that lifted...

Big-ass shackles hanging way down in the breeze are ugly too... I don't want it to look like a Zuk

The oversteer comes from body roll, which forces the outside leaf flatter and the inside one more drooped, which pushes the axle forward on the outside, which self-steers the truck harder around the corner. You'd never notice that in a Zuk - they have no power *ducks and runs for cover* To avoid that on 60-series cruisers they had a big heavy anti-sway bar - the enemy of articulation.

Steve

[MATT4U]

Well that makes sence, The oldmans cruiser did tent to over stear a bit if pushed to hard into a corner.
I sopse coils are out of the question

[SupraLux]

At this point coils would be waaay to much backtracking. I built this to work well offroad, and I think leaves give a better feel in rough terrain while being easier to get right - an important design consideration when you remember this was supposed to be a 2 week project start to finish

I have a full coil setup sitting here which I may do into a Wizard once this is done. 5 doors would be better for a family wagon. I'm toying with the idea of a spring under (SHOCK!) coil setup on Hilux axles with mild lift over standard as a play-toy / family wagon / daily driver for the wife.

Steve

[MATT4U]

well I hope its not to long till you have it going, them mabe next your you can do a conversion for me